WASHINGTON – If left untreated, sleep apnea poses serious risks to anyone who sits behind the wheel of a commercial motor vehicle or climbs into the cab of a locomotive.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently initiated a rulemaking project to evaluate – and treat, when applicable – workers who exhibit risk factors for sleep apnea. The agencies began work Oct. 1 on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, according to a Department of Transportation regulatory report.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski responded to the news that the Alaska Railroad Corporation (ARRC) became the first railroad in the nation permitted to transport liquified natural gas (LNG) by rail, saying:
“I am pleased the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently approved the Alaska Railroad’s request to move liquified natural gas via rail to Fairbanks. The Interior of Alaska is in need of an affordable energy source and natural gas by rail holds real promise.”
SEATTLE – Because the future of our economy rests on a strong transportation system to move materials and products, today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx released the draft National Freight Strategic Plan, which offers specific policy proposals and solutions to address the growing challenges of moving freight in this country. Now open for public comment, the draft Plan is an essential step for continuing to support the nation’s economy through the efficient movement of goods, while recognizing and responding to future infrastructure challenges. He was joined by Senator Maria Cantwell at Seattle Public School Headquarters.
Every day, millions of trucks, trains, aircraft, and ships move across the United States, transporting and delivering materials and products that are essential to our way of life and our economy. According to the most recent data released from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, freight shipments last month reached an all-time high and were 30.4 percent higher than the recent low in April 2009 during the recession. While this increase in freight traffic is good news for our economy, concerns remain that our infrastructure cannot accommodate continued growth: in the next 30 years the population of the United States is expected to grow by 70 million people, and freight traffic is expected to increase by 42 percent by 2040.
“With an increasingly competitive and complex global marketplace and a deteriorating transportation infrastructure that is unfortunately showing the effects of age and underinvestment, the need for us to have a national freight plan could not be more urgent,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx.
This draft Plan is a first-of-its-kind document that takes a comprehensive look at the Nation’s freight needs and future challenges and offers a roadmap for improvements. It proposes solutions and strategies to address the infrastructure, institutional, and financial bottlenecks that hinder the safe and efficient movement of goods. It also identifies many successful programs already in place to improve freight planning and investment, and proposes new programs and ideas that could make more progress possible. Importantly, it also recognizes the benefits of establishing a strong freight program in the next reauthorization bill.
“Congestion on rails, surface streets, and at our ports across the Pacific Northwest costs businesses billions of dollars a year and gives an edge to competitors around the globe. The National Freight Strategic Plan means places like Seattle and Tacoma will be part of our national strategy to quickly move products through traffic congested areas,” said Senator Cantwell.
These strategies include efforts to reduce congestion and increase efficiency while improving safety and reliability, and reducing adverse impacts on the environment and communities. This will include incorporating new technologies allowing for better quality data collection and faster analysis of freight routes, travel times, and infrastructure capacity. It also means breaking down institutional impediments, such as conflicting priorities at the Federal, State and local levels, and unnecessarily complex and lengthy permitting and approval processes. Building on existing efforts to improve coordination and synchronization across various levels of government, the draft Plan presents opportunities and potential pathways to enhance freight planning.
Specific strategies include:
Ensure dedicated freight funding: The draft Plan emphasizes the importance of a dedicated freight program that would improve the movement of freight and meet regional economic demand and would require or incentivize State Freight Advisory Committees, State Freight Plans, and cross-jurisdictional/cooperative planning. The GROW AMERICA Act would provide $18 billion over six years through two dedicated, multimodal freight grant programs for targeted investments.
Identify major trade gateways and multimodal national freight networks/corridors: U.S. DOT is releasing a draft Multimodal Freight Network (MFN) map to inform planners, private sector stakeholders, and the public about where major freight flows occur and where special attention to freight issues may be most warranted. U.S. DOT and the U.S. Department of Commerce have monitored and analyzed major trade gateways and freight corridors for decades, but the draft MFN combines the most critical modal components and shows the connections between them.
Facilitate multijurisdictional, multimodal collaboration and solutions: U.S. DOT will continue its work to support local, State, and interagency collaboration, including close cooperation with port authorities, private sector stakeholders, and agencies in Canada and Mexico; sharing best practices for freight planning; supporting advisory committees and public forums with stakeholders; and encouraging effective use of funding available at the national level.
Ensure availability of better data and models: U.S. DOT will continue to develop and deploy newer and more advanced freight data resources to the planning community and advance the measurement and analysis of transit times for different commodities from a multimodal, origin-to-destination perspective. Congress could enhance U.S. DOT’s authority to collect intermodal freight data by giving U.S. DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics the authority to assemble intermodal freight movement data under the Intermodal Transportation Data Program, as proposed in the GROW AMERICA Act.
Improve safety and support the adoption of new transportation technologies: U.S. DOT is undertaking new and innovative efforts to improve freight transportation safety. The Department recently announced the formation of a National Coalition on Truck Parking to improve commercial driver safety. U.S. DOT will also efforts to adopt new and exciting transportation technologies, including autonomous vehicles that promise to allow for safer and more reliable freight transportation.
Develop the next generation freight transportation workforce: U.S. DOT is committed to promoting economic opportunity through high-quality transportation jobs as part of the President’s Ladders of Opportunity Initiative. Efforts include developing freight skills for State transportation agency and MPO staff through a growing body of resources and guidance on freight planning, and pushing for greater authority to develop workforce plans.
The most recent surface transportation reauthorization law, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), directed the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop a National Freight Strategic Plan laying out a course of action to meet National Freight Policy goals designed to improve the movement of freight in the U.S. The Department welcomes the public to provide feedback and comment on the draft National Freight Strategic Plan. To submit your thoughts and to learn more about the draft plan, visit www.transportation.gov/freight.
Motorists’ wait time at U.S. rail crossings may double as CSX Corp. hooks trains together to boost efficiency amid plunging demand for coal shipments.
Bulk cargo is the latest focus in CSX’s effort to improve productivity. Getting more cars behind the locomotives is one way to do that — even if a longer, heavier load spends more time on the tracks.
“We’re actually combining two long trains” in some coal markets, Chief Executive Officer Michael Ward said in an interview Wednesday, Oct. 14. “Some of the trains can get to a couple of miles long.”
We all know the joke: if you have poor penmanship, you should become a doctor.
Unfortunately, poor penmanship on patient notes and records can lead to claim denials, because if Medicare can’t read what the doctor wrote, we can’t know if the services were reasonable and necessary and meet all guidelines for coverage.
Medicare requires that the patient’s medical record be complete and legible, and it should include the readable identity of the provider and the date of service. With the inception of electronic records (the likely reason your doctor is now toting around a laptop computer), issues such as this are declining. However, they still present a problem when a claim is subjected to medical review.
What a doctor can do about this issue (if they have illegible handwriting):
Have notes transcribed and then electronically signed by the doctor, when necessary
Add amendments/corrections and delayed entries (only when needed) into medical documentation in the following way:
Clearly and permanently identify the changes or corrections
Clearly indicate the date and author of these changes or corrections
Do not delete the original content in the record
Provide an acceptable handwritten signature that meets Medicare guidelines. These guidelines allow Medicare to look at the records and consider a ‘signature log’ or ‘attestation statement’ that identifies the author of the record, and there are specific ways a doctor who signs their name in a ‘scribble’ can meet the signature requirements. These specific ways are identified on the CMS website, as well as the Palmetto GBA website for providers. If your doctor needs to know more about these methods, we encourage them to call our Provider Contact Center at 888-355-9165.
What you can do about the issue:
If a claim denies due to illegible records, and your Medicare Summary Notice (MSN) indicates that you owe $0.00, do not pay your doctor for the service. If your doctor insists that you pay for a service in this situation (when the MSN says you don’t owe anything), call our Beneficiary Contact Center at 800-833-4455.
If a claim denies and your MSN shows that you owe $0.00, it is not necessary to file an appeal. You can still file an appeal because it is your right to do so; however, you are not required when you are not liable.
If you have any questions about your Railroad Medicare coverage, please call our Beneficiary Contact Center at 800-833-4455, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET. We encourage you to sign up for email updates. To do so, click ‘E-Mail Updates’ on the top of our beneficiary website at www.PalmettoGBA.com/rr/me to start the process.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today announced nearly $2.3 million in grants, double the amount provided in 2014, to 13 technical and community colleges across the country to help train veterans and their families for jobs as commercial bus and truck drivers. The funding is provided through FMCSA’s Commercial Motor Vehicle – Operator Safety Training (CMV-OST) grant program.
“We support job opportunities for Veterans who have served our country, but not only because it is the right thing to do, it also makes good sense,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “One of the most important, fastest growing employment sectors is for qualified commercial vehicle drivers and Veterans bring invaluable experience to the industry and can enter the workforce quickly.”
“We doubled the amount we have previously provided through this grant program because of the important role qualified commercial truck and bus drivers hold in moving our economy forward,” said FMCSA Acting Administrator Scott Darling. “The men and women who complete these commercial driver training programs also serve our country in a vital way by making safety their top priority every mile, every day.”
FMCSA awards CMV-OST grants to a variety of educational institutions that provide truck driving training, including accredited public or private colleges, universities, vocational-technical schools, post-secondary educational institutions, truck driver training schools, associations, and state and local governments, including federally-recognized Native American tribal governments.
The 2015 FMCSA grants announced today will provide training for hundreds of new students. The awards were made to the following organizations:
California – West Hills Community College District, Coalinga, $199,460
Georgia – Central Georgia Technical College, Macon, $146,771
Maryland – Cecil College, North East, $101,825
New York – Erie 2 Chautauqua Cattaraugus BOCES, Angola, $105,201
North Carolina – North Carolina Department of Transportation, Raleigh, $200,000
Ohio – Cuyahoga Community College District, Cleveland, $195,040
Oklahoma – Central Technical Center, Drumright, $200,000
Pennsylvania – Lancaster County Career & Technology Center, Willow Street, $194,811
Pennsylvania – Northampton County Area Community College, Bethlehem, $134,400
Pennsylvania – The Sage Corporation, Camp Hill, $198,504
South Carolina – Orangeburg-Callhoun Technical College, Orangeburg, $197,399
Texas – Alamo Colleges/ St. Phillip’s College, San Antonio, $196,680
Virginia – Tidewater Community College, Norfolk, $199,879
The Commercial Motor Vehicle – Operator Safety Training Grant Program was established by Congress in 2005 through the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act – A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), to expand the number of commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders possessing enhanced operator safety training to help reduce the severity and number of crashes on U.S. roads involving large trucks and buses.
Under this program, state licensing agencies have authority to waive the skills test portion of the CDL application for active duty or recently separated veterans who possess at least two years of safe driving experience operating a military truck or bus. Waiving the skills test expedites the civilian commercial drivers licensing application process and reduces expenses for qualified individuals and operating costs to state licensing agencies.
FMCSA last year also announced that, beginning with Virginia residents, returning military service personnel who possess a state-issued Skill Performance Evaluation (SPE) certificate due to a limb impairment will automatically be recognized as equivalent to an FMCSA-issued SPE certificate and allowed to obtain an interstate commercial driver’s license (CDL). FMCSA encourages other state licensing agencies to establish comparable equivalency SPE programs.
Transportation Technology Center, Inc. conducted a side impact test on a DOT-111 tank car to evaluate the performance of the tank car under dynamic impact conditions and to provide data for the verification and refinement of a computational model.
The tank car was filled with water to approximately 97 percent of its volume and sealed but not pressurized. The tank car was impacted at 14.0 mph by a 297,125-pound ram car with 12- by 12-inch ram head fitted to the ram car.
The ram car impacted the tank center and punctured both the external jacket and tank shell. The overall purpose of the program is to improve transportation safety for tank cars.
Click here to read the full report from the Federal Railroad Administration.
Creighton University is developing a program to aid those who will lose their jobs in the wake of ConAgra’s recent announcement that it will slash expenses by eliminating salaried positions and relocating its global headquarters from Omaha to Chicago.
Rail execs are beginning to explore the capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for a variety of potential applications — including security. More commonly known as drones, these camera-equipped devices can help crews keep closer tabs on tracks and trains from afar.
Because UAVs can move quickly from one place to the next, they offer an advantage over fixed camera systems that criminals can evade.
“An unmanned aerial vehicle could be anywhere anytime, day or night,” said Richard Gent, a retired Naval intelligence officer who now serves as chief executive officer of rail security consulting firm Hot Rail LLC. “You’ve increased the workload for a bad guy or criminal because they don’t know where this thing is.”
SMART TD-represented trainmen employed by Paducah and Louisville Railway (P&L) have ratified a new five-year agreement by an overwhelming majority.
The agreement provides for wage increases beginning on January 1, 2014, and each year through 2018, for a 16 percent cumulative increase.
In addition to the general wage increases, the agreement provides full back-pay, an increase in certification and meal allowance payments, increases in 401K contributions and a cap to health and welfare contributions over the life of the agreement. The agreement also establishes call windows for regular assignments, preserves cost of living adjustments and improves bereavement and personal leave provisions.
“General Committee of Adjustment 433 (CN Illinois Central) General Chairperson Adren Crawford, retired General Chairperson Red Dare, former General Committee Secretary JJ. Russum, Vice General Chairperson Jonathan Dooley and Local 785 (Paducah, Ky.) Chairperson Jason Luscombe did an outstanding job of bringing the members’ concerns to the table and negotiating an agreement with dramatic improvements in wages and working conditions,” said Vice President Dave Wier.
WASHINGTON – If left untreated, sleep apnea poses serious risks to anyone who sits behind the wheel of a commercial motor vehicle or climbs into the cab of a locomotive.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski responded to the news that the Alaska Railroad Corporation (ARRC) became the first railroad in the nation permitted to transport liquified natural gas (LNG) by rail, saying:
Motorists’ wait time at U.S. rail crossings may double as CSX Corp. hooks trains together to boost efficiency amid plunging demand for coal shipments.
We all know the joke: if you have poor penmanship, you should become a doctor. 
Transportation Technology Center, Inc. conducted a side impact test on a DOT-111 tank car to evaluate the performance of the tank car under dynamic impact conditions and to provide data for the verification and refinement of a computational model.
Rail execs are beginning to explore the capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for a variety of potential applications — including security. More commonly known as drones, these camera-equipped devices can help crews keep closer tabs on tracks and trains from afar.
SMART TD-represented trainmen employed by Paducah and Louisville Railway (P&L) have ratified a new five-year agreement by an overwhelming majority.